NASA invites you — and everyone else on the planet — to take part in a worldwide celebration of Earth Day this year with the agency’s #GlobalSelfie event.

While NASA satellites constantly look at Earth from space, on Earth Day we’re asking you to step outside on Earth Day (April 22) and take a picture of yourself wherever you are on Earth. Then post it to social media using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie. The individual pictures tagged #GlobalSelfie will be used to create a mosaic image of Earth — a new “Blue Marble” built bit by bit with your photos.

In this NASA Now classroom video, introduced by NES educator, Ken Schopf at Laurel School in Ohio, aerospace engineer Jennifer Keyes shows how NASA engineers developed “TumbleCup,” a concept rover capable of traveling large distances on Mars.

This classroom video is available on the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus beginning April 9, 2014.

As part of a series of electronic professional development experiences for educators, the NASA Explorer Schools project and the National Science Teachers Association are hosting a series of 90-minute live professional development Web seminars.

Get background information about water recycling on the International Space Station, and then see how to incorporate the information into an exciting hands-on, inquiry-based challenge requiring students to solve a problem. The featured student activity provides many opportunities for incorporating national science, technology and mathematics learning standards into the curriculum as well as addressing middle school Next Generation Science Standards.

Learn how to use authentic NASA mission data to investigate the composition and distribution of ice in the high-latitude regions of Mars through analysis of visible light, infrared light and gamma rays. The seminar includes information about a unique student extension activity, where students access a free computer simulation illustrating how gamma rays are used to determine the chemical composition of Mars.

The featured activity provides many opportunities for incorporating national science, technology and mathematics learning standards into the curriculum as well as addressing high school Next Generation Science Standards.

NASA and JAXA are about to launch a new satellite that can see through storms, tracking rain and snow around the globe better than any previous observatory. The Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory is scheduled to lift off from Japan on Feb. 27th.

The GPM mission can be used enhance the NES resources:

NES Lesson: Weather and Climate: Satellite Meteorology – Students use authentic data from geostationary satellites to detect and monitor forest fires and biomass burning. Students use the data to monitor the planet and identify urban heat islands.

NES Lesson: Electromagnetic Spectrum: Remote Sensing Ices on Mars – Students analyze data collected by Mars spacecraft using three different forms of electromagnetic energy — visible light, infrared, and gamma rays — to investigate the composition and distribution of ices at the high-latitude regions of Mars.

In this NASA Now classroom video, introduced by Danielle Schwan, NES educator at Lake Metroparks in Kirtland, Ohio, Walter Bruce, a thermal engineer at NASA Langley Research Center, explains how a Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator, or HIAD, works and he describes some possibilities for future planetary exploration that HIAD presents.

Former NASA astronaut Gregory H. Johnson and Dr. Michael Roberts of the Center for the Advancement of Space In Science, or CASIS, will answer student questions about experiments on board the ISS.

Join this exciting video chat for students by going to the video chat login page 15 minutes prior to the start time and submit your student questions via Twitter, email or chat. Selected questions will be answered during the broadcast.